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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22483489">The Hair Needs to be Short</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, hair cutting, its platonic guys, maybe shuichi has a little crush, saimatsu friendship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 13:41:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,577</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22483489</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaede forces Shuichi to cut her hair.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Shuichi Saihara &amp; Kaede Akamatsu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Hair Needs to be Short</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shuichi was known to worry. He himself knew he was known to worry.</p><p>Which is why when Kaede was beginning to act a bit more frantic and impulsively he thought it was all in his head. </p><p>It wasn’t.</p><p>Everyone could tell Kaede was being a bit more hasty than Miu acted on the politest day of the inventor’s life.</p><p>So, logically, they all got Shuichi to try and get whatever was bothering Kaede out of her.</p><p>“Why me?” Shuichi protested. “I’m just...you know...me.”</p><p>“Well, first off, you dumbass, you were the first to notice something off about Bakamatsu before it became a pain in the ass.” A previously mentioned inventor yelled.</p><p>“And you’re both really close!” Added Kaito.</p><p>“But I’m not good at these things.”</p><p>“It doesn’t really matter if you’re good at it or not,” advised Kirumi. “What matters is that you’re worried about Kaede. The thought is what matters.”</p><p>“Though if you mess up, you could seriously damage Kaede!” Ouma called from across the dining hall table.</p><p>“It’ll be find, Shuichi. Like Kirumi said, the thought is what matters!” encouraged Rantaro, who was currently muffling Ouma’s other rude remarks with their hand.</p><p>After a bit more convincing, Shuichi agreed to do it. As he headed to the pianist’s dorm (he’d searched everywhere else, so, reasonably, that’s where she ought to be; also, it was night time), he began to talk himself out of it. She was okay, probably, so she probably didn’t need any checking in on. Or maybe it was worse than what the group had thought had happened. Maybe she’d fallen into a depressive funk like he did sometimes (though those funks seemed less and less common now that he had a group of friends to rely on and could easily talk to), which made enough sense, so that is what he believed as he knocked on her dorm’s door. It was cracked open, so as he knocked on the door it opened. With a glance around to make sure nobody was looking (particularly Tenko out of fear of what she would do if she assumed he was peaking), Shuichi headed in.</p><p>Shuichi did not expect the sight he was greeted with: much of Kaede’s belongings (mostly sheet music and the little Monokuma figures they both owned) appeared to be scattered around the floor and shuffled through. Her drawers were all pulled out, and little music-note hair clips and other knicknacks were littered amongst the music. The lamp shade on her lamp was tilted.</p><p>It was almost as if someone was looking for something.</p><p>With that, a wave of panic took over Shuichi. Maybe a murder had taken place, though he thoroughly doubted that. Monokuma had said that this would just be a dating-show type thing, right? So a murder couldn’t have happened, right? Right?</p><p>With a new wave of panic, Shuichi just about kicked down the door to Kaede’s bathroom (“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he whispered as kicked the door, only hesitating a second). To which he saw a figure standing in the middle of the bathroom, clothed with music-note pajamas, face turned away.</p><p>“K-Kaede?”</p><p>“Shuichi.” The figure, which did turn out to be Kaede, turned around from the mirror ominously, eye liner leaking down her face to make her look like a particular robot classmate. “I need you to cut my hair.”</p><p>“Wh- Kaede? Are you okay?” Shuichi slowly approached his best friend, who wasn’t actively crying, but obviously had been.</p><p>“No, I’m not, Shuichi. I need you to cut my hair.” She went over to him and thrust the scissors at him rather forcefully, nearly stabbing him in the chest.</p><p>“D-don’t you think someone else--I dunno, Rantaro, or Angie, or maybe Kiyo--would be better suited for this?” Shuichi was sweating and trying to back away from her with little success, as he was quickly pushed into the wall.</p><p> “I ran into Rantaro in the bathroom, Shuichi, and they were hacking at their hair with a fucking knife.” Shuichi flinched; he’d never heard Kaede curse before. “I am not letting that near my hair, regardless of how they somehow pull off the look. I am not that fashionable. Plus, I already got them to pierce my ears. And have you seen Angie’s art? Apply that to my hair. Would that turn out well? Huh? You think I would look good with my hair somehow turned into a sculpture?” Shuichi quickly shook his head, terrified of what would happen if he said yes, for Kaede was quickly becoming more and more angry. She was practically foaming at the mouth at this point. “And don’t even get me started on Kiyo! I’d get some sort of traditional makeover and end up looking like a geisha. I don’t want to be a geisha, Shuichi! I want my hair short!</p><p>“Also, I trust you.” Kaede added as a last-minute thought.</p><p>Shuichi gulped. “Ah- y-yeah, that makes sense...uh, could you maybe back up and actually give me the scissors instead of trying to murder me?” He darted his eyes around the room and was sweating profusely. “Not to be mean or uh, anything.”</p><p>Kaede backed up and shoved the scissors into Shuichi’s hands. Shuichi followed her to the bathroom, and she sat on the toilet lid. Shuichi looked at the scissors in his hand I hoped the sweat that was now covering them wouldn’t cause him to slip and cut too much of Kaede’s hair. Though in this state, he didn’t think anything would be “too much.”</p><p>“Erm, how short do you want it?”</p><p>“Short,” Kaede replied sternly. Shuichi feared for his life.</p><p>“Ah, okay, yeah.” Shuichi took the scissors and began to cut Kaede’s hair, which was currently long enough for her to sit on, and cut a big chunk of it to about her shoulders. Now, he just needed to do the rest. </p><p>As he cut, he initially tried to make small conversation, only to receive a grunt or two in reply from Kaede, so he quickly discarded the idea. After that, he only spoke to ask if she had a hairbrush or stuff of the sort, which earned a finger point from Kaede and maybe a “top drawer to the left” if the detective was lucky.</p><p>Shuichi was glad for his observant personality, or maybe just how sensitive he was during his hair cuts, as he ended up having the blonde pretty even in the end. It did curl up in clumps, however, and there was nothing much he could do about that.</p><p>“So, uh, I think I’m done? Does it look good Kaede?”</p><p>Kaede stood up from the toilet seat and went over to the mirror and turned her head a couple times, pausing each time to see the new hair style. Shuichi stood awkwardly in the back, twiddling his thumbs, hoping she wouldn’t bite his head off. “I like it.”</p><p>“O-Oh good. Yeah, good. I was worried you wouldn’t like it. Because you are just so...scary? Though that doesn’t quite sum it up right...when you’re angry, and I thought you might actually hurt me if you didn’t like it--”</p><p>“Oh, shut up, Shuichi, for once in your life. It’s fine, and I like it,” Kaede countered, turning around. “Sorry for being so snappy.”</p><p>“I- You’re okay, Kaede. But is something wrong? You’re not usually like this.” Shuichi nervously skitted to the topic that had been bothering him, hoping his pianist buddy wouldn’t be too upset.</p><p>“No, I haven’t, really,” Kaede responded, honestly. “I- do you mind me venting?” Shuichi shook his head and smiled what he hoped was reassuring. Kaede nodded toward the bed, and they sat by each other (a little close for Shuichi’s like, but Kaede was a rather hands-on person, so he went with it). “I get like this sometimes. Inexplicably angry, I mean. Uh, I don’t know what sets it off, really. But something gets me to this state and then I decide the normal thing to do is to...God, this’ll sound silly...I usually cut my hair. Or dye it.” Kaede was twirling her hair around her finger and looking at something--anything--other than Shuichi’s stare.</p><p>“Oh…”</p><p>“Yeah, I know. It’s kinda dumb, but I always feel better after I do it, you know?”</p><p>“No, no, it makes sense!” Shuichi reassured her. “Sometimes a change is necessary, I guess.”</p><p>“Oh.” Kaede began to smile. “When you say it like that, well, it sounds less silly. Thank you, Shuichi.”</p><p>Shuichi blushed. “I-it’s nothing. Just...what friends do, right?”</p><p>“Yeah, I know, but I’ve never really had a friend like you before, Shuichi. You’re one of the best people I know.” Kaede beamed. That short hair really suited her, not that the longer didn’t.</p><p>“I- don’t say things like that, Kaede…,” Shuichi whispered, now looking to the pianist’s lamp shade. Music notes danced along it.</p><p>“You say something, Shuichi?” Kaede poked him.</p><p>“Nope!” the detective squeaked. “I-It’s late, Kaede. I should probably go...don’t want anybody spreading rumors, right?” He laughed as he headed toward the door.</p><p>“Why would they? But good night, Shuichi!” She waved, though Shuichi didn’t see as he was already darting toward the door. “I love you!” She called, as she usually did as a good-bye to her friends. Or really anyone she knew.<br/>
“Mmmhmm!” Shuichi called, furiously red from Kaede’s compliments. He immediately ran to his room and crashed for the night.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this is loosely based on the fact kaede in her character illustration has rlly long hair and in literally everything else she has short hair. and also the fact i do the same thing when i get in a weird funk but shhhhhhhh<br/>i dont know how to name fics tho so :/<br/>also saimatsu friendship for the SOUL</p></blockquote></div></div>
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